


The Case of the Missing Hat

by FleetSparrow



Category: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 00:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17033236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/pseuds/FleetSparrow
Summary: There are many mysteries in the quaint village of St. Mary Mead.  This is one of them.





	The Case of the Missing Hat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carmilla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmilla/gifts).



The village of St. Mary Mead was a quiet little village, very quaint and set in its ways, although there were, of course, the newer residences bringing in their newer families and modern behaviors. The more families that moved in, the more children there were in the village. St. Mary Mead, though hardly a bustling metropolis, had seen a recent population increase, and with it the typical kinds of problems and mysteries that families and children were wont to have. Families feud and gossip with one another, while the children strain to grow up faster. All in all, the village of St. Mary Mead was a thoroughly pleasant, calm village to live in.

There were, unfortunately, those few murders that had happened in the usually peaceful village. But they were rare affairs, almost inevitably solved by

“Miss Marple! Miss Marple!”

Young Doris Mann came running up to Miss Marple on the main street of St. Mary Mead, still in her school uniform, clutching a small basket of flowers under one arm, while the other held her book bag.

Miss Marple paused on her way to the shops, stooping a little to speak to her. “What is it, Doris?”

The girl came skittering to a halt before her. “Miss Marple, oh it's just awful! Someone stole my new hat and I'll be in ever so much trouble if I don't find it.”

Doris was near to tears. Miss Marple touched her shoulder to soothe her. “Well, now. Tell me where you last had it.”

“I had it when I was playing after school. I took it off to play on the swings and when I got off them, it was gone. It was right by my basket and my bag, but when I came off it was only my basket and bag there.”

“That is quite serious,” Miss Marple said solemnly. “Who else was with you at the time?”

Doris frowned in thought. “Johnny, Tim, Angie, and me. But it couldn’t have been one of them, could it?”

“That is what we must discover. Now, Doris, who wasn’t playing with the rest of you?”

“They all were,” Doris said. Then she paused and spoke again, “Angie was with me on the swings. Johnny and Tim were wrestling until Johnny had to go home. Then, Tim left before us.”

Miss Marple hummed in thought, turning the problem over in her mind. She was very close to an answer, she was sure of it. She remembered a similar case from her own childhood, involving a young boy and a book that mysteriously disappeared and reappeared.

“Tell me, were either of the boys carrying any bags?” she asked.

Doris chewed her bottom lip—a habit Miss Marple reminded her she would need to break soon—as she thought. “Johnny hadn’t anything. He got in trouble for not remembering his books in class today. Timmy, he had his bag, though.”

“I see,” Miss Marple said. “I suggest you find Timothy Sharp and tell him you want your hat back. And tell him that the next time he wants to get your attention, he give something to you instead of taking it.”

Doris’ eyes went wide in admiration and wonder. “Oh, thank you, Miss Marple! Thank you!” She gave Miss Marple a quick hug and ran off back towards the schoolyard.

Halfway there, she ran into Tim, who looked sheepishly at her, his bag in his arms in front of him almost defensively. Doris marched right up to him and placed her hands on her hips, her basket sticking out at an odd angle, the flowers precariously balancing inside it.

“Where’s my hat?”

Tim blinked. “I— I have it! I mean, I _found_ it. It had fallen.”

“Miss Marple said you took it and that the next time you want my attention, you need to give me something instead of taking my things.” Doris held out a hand. “Now give me back my hat. I could’ve got in big trouble because of you.”

Timmy opened and closed his mouth like a fish. Finally, he sighed and pulled her hat out of his bag. “I didn’t mean for you to get in trouble.”

Doris placed the hat back on her head, pinning it in her hair just the way she’d seen the ladies in the pictures do. “Why did you take it, anyway?”

Tim scuffed his shoe on the ground. “I like you. I thought, if I found your hat for you, you’d like me, too.”

Doris sighed, world-weary at ten. “But you didn’t have to _steal_ it.”

“How else could I find it for you?” he asked.

Doris shook her head and linked her arm with his, like the grown-ups did. “You’re very funny, Tim.”

They walked back to town, arm in arm. Tim noticed Miss Marple leaving the shops and hung his head, as if he could hide himself from her gaze. Miss Marple walked over to them and Tim reluctantly stopped.

“I see you found your hat,” she said to Doris. She turned to Tim, her expression stern, but not unkind. “That was very naughty, Timothy. It won’t do at all.”

“Yes, ma’am. I-I won’t do it again, ma’am,” he stammered, not quite meeting her eyes.

“Yes, well, that’s all right, then.” Miss Marple gave them a small smile and nodded to them both.

Doris pulled out a couple of flowers from her basket and handed them to Miss Marple. “Thank you ever so much for finding it,” she said.

“Of course, my dear. Anytime,” Miss Marple said. She took the flowers and headed for home.

Tim watched her go and muttered to Doris, “My dad says she’s a witch.”

Doris shoved him playfully. “She’s not a witch! She’s just a nice old lady. I want to be like her when I get old. She’s not like my gran was at her age.”

“But she’s ancient,” Tim said. “She must be a hundred.”

“Then I want to be a hundred, too,” Doris said, proudly. “If I could be like Miss Marple.”


End file.
